The therapeutic value of magnetic fields has been known for more than two thousand years. Permanent magnets placed on or adjacent an animal or human body have been used for pain relief and blood circulation improvement. It is also known to use pulsating magnetic fields for medical and therapeutic purposes.
For over 50 years the use of electro-magnetic fields has been known to be more beneficial than static or permanent magnetic fields. The most common devices use a generator unit to produce a pulsing or time-varying electric current which is fed into a wire-wound coil or coils to produce an electromagnetic field.
In most commercially available prior art devices direct current (D.C.) pulses are used to energise the applicator coils. These prior art devices have proven effective in providing temporary pain relief and promoting repair of damaged tissue. The inventors have found that an enhanced effect can be obtain by applying multi-rhythm bio-waveforms of pulsed alternating magnetic fields.
Medical science and clinical testing (using an electro-encephalogram) have established that the predominant brain wave activity is a spiked alternating waveform at a frequency of between 8 Hz and 13 Hz. This is known as the `alpha` rhythm. Other rhythms detected by an EEG are the `beta` rhythm at frequencies above 13 Hz, the `theta` rhythm at frequencies between 4 Hz and 7 Hz and the `delta` rhythm at frequencies below 4 Hz. Other less common rhythms (`mu`--9 Hz, `lambda`--4-6 Hz) have also been measured.
It has also been established that the terrestrial magnetic field has a predominant pulsing of 9.6 Hz with Schumann Resonance frequencies of 7.83 Hz to 7.96 Hz. The terrestrial magnetic field and other naturally occurring fields have an induced electrical effect on all living matter at the cellular level. This effect is due to the paramagnetic nature of materials in living matter such as DNA and blood. Blood contains iron which is paramagnetic and therefore affected by magnetic fields and the DNA in every cell has positive and negative regions. The basis of magnetic therapy is that artificially produced fields can have a beneficial effect on living tissue by interaction with the paramagnetic components.
Electrical potential has been measured across cell walls. This potential is maintained by the movement of ions and in particular, Na.sup.+, K.sup.+, Cl.sup.-, and HCO.sup.-. Normal cell potentials vary from -60 mV in some muscles to as much as -120 mV in myocardial cells. This movement of ions is known to have a profound influence on the inflammatory process of living tissue. Cell wall potential differences tend to attract positive ions into and negative ions out of the cell, resulting in a reduction in cell potential, an increase in fluid(oedema) and a triggering, under certain conditions, of pain mechanisms. A pulsed alternating magnetic field can influence the net ion flux through the cell membrane to restore the normal cell potential and Na.sup.+ and K.sup.+ balance, and release encephalin, endorphin and other chemicals to inhibit or modify pain signal transmission.